“
Always grab the reader by the
throat in the first paragraph, sink
your thumbs into his windpipe in
the second, and hold him against
the wall until the tag line.
”
- Paul O’Neil, former veteran Life magazine writer

“
Don’t bother with the big wind-up.
Don’t feel like you have to justify
what you’re going to talk about –
‘XYZ season is fast approaching,
folks, so …’ Just start talking about
it. If you feel like readers need
background information, don’t lead
with it. Lead with what’s new, with
what your article is about.
”
- The Bleacher Report Writers Report

“When they heard the screams,
no one suspected the rooster.”
- Kelley Benham French, St. Petersburg
Times (2002)
"Gary Robinson died hungry.“
- Edna Buchanan, Miami Herald (1985)
4
GREAT LEDES
“The Pigeon King delivered his
closing statement to the jury
dressed in his only suit.”
- Jon Mooallem, New York Times
Magazine (2015)
“The babies showed up on
Craigslist at 1:26 p.m., May 6.”
- Kristen Hare, St. Louis Beacon (2008)

How Pulitzer-Prize winners build
on headlines…
Headline
Pentagon Curbs Use of Psychologists
With Guantanamo Detainees
Lede
The United States military has sharply
curtailed the use of psychologists at the
prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in
response to strict new professional ethics
rules of the American Psychological
Association, Pentagon officials said.
- James Risen, The New York Times
Affirms
headline…
…then
builds

“
A long lede shows a lack of
confidence, like you don’t believe I’ll
read the whole story so you have to
tell me as much as you can as fast
as you can.
”
- Steve Buttry, Director of Student Media, LSU’s Manship
School of Mass Communication

“
If we think about the beginning of
the book, the opening pages, then I
feel it is imperative that the writer
get down to business quickly and
draw the reader in to such a degree
that he or she will not want to stop.
”
- Paul Auster, New York Times bestselling author

“
In [writing,] as in life, you can get
away with what you can get away
with. If you’re good enough, you
can get away with murder. If you’re
not -- and most of us are not -- you
can’t.
”
- Claire Messud, New York Times bestselling author